scottysgirl: I never understood "emotional" eating, or when people would say they self medicated with food. My family had a very traumatic event occur a couple of years ago and it flat out knocked me down. I literally fell to the floor when the news was delivered to me and it has been a very difficult 2 1/2 years dealing with what has happened. I won't go into specifics, but I found that each time I became upset and emotional over this event I would eat something. I didn't even realize I was doing it at first, and one day it hit me. I had become an emotional eater.

While I had no control over the things that were happening in my family, I did have control over how I treated my body. The only thing eating did was add another thing to feel bad about. I ended up even more depressed as I gained weight.

I know that this is a hard thing to go through. If you allow this to be a reason that you derail your weight loss you will continue to let other things do the same. I know it is difficult, I am sorry for your family's loss and it truly is sad. Even sadder is if you let it impact you even more by going off track. You truly can control what you do moving forward. Instead of hoping next week is better, you can make it better. I know you can do this, because I did it as well.

It doesn't mean every day will be great. It just means you have the strength to meet it head on and deal with things in a healthier way. The more you exercise that control, the easier it gets. Hang in there!

Thanx again for your advice and kind words, everyone. I have to admit, I would be an emotional eater, but never really realized it myself. When I started this diet, it became something I had better control of, and have done my best to not go back to that, because that's what made me overweight and unhappy to begin with. And I didn't want to be that way anymore. I almost went back to that last Thursday, but decided not because I knew I would regret it if I did. I realized that you can't just give up riding your bicycle if you fall off. You get up off the ground, dust yourself off, and get back on, and that's what I'm doing.